Weymouth Remembrance Day

Armistice’s 90th anniversary observed in Weymouth

The Remembrance Day service at the Weymouth Legion observed the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Legion president and master of ceremonies Pete Comeau spoke of the sacrifices made by Canadian soldiers as they fought overseas during the four year conflict in which over 60,000 Canadians gave their lives.

Comeau reminded those in attendance of the story behind the famous Canadian poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ and the poppies that grew there.

In a letter to his mother, Lt. Col. John McCrae wrote of the Battle of Ypres.

"The general impression in my mind is of a nightmare. We have been in the most bitter of fights. For seventeen days and seventeen nights none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even, except occasionally. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds.

“And behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way."

After losing a good friend during heaving shelling, McCrae saw the wild poppies blooming around the many crosses and he penned the poem he is famous for.

McCrae died of pneumonia and meningitis in January, 1918.